One of us wanted to build a banjo or two, so we split the challenges between us. USA: neck, UK: pot, slotted or pocketed fretboard, headstock overlay and truss rod cover. And in one case UK: a transition piece between neck and pot. The inlayed fretboard, headstock overlay and truss rod cover (and one transition piece) were mailed to the USA and there assembled as a complete neck. This was then hand-carried back to the UK, where the complete instrument was assembled. The pot construction is described here, as is the transition piece; they were fun challenge on the CNC machine. So were making the fretboards, headstock overlays, and truss rod covers: making them on the CNC router allowed for great inlays, and the technique for doing that is described. Note some of the fret slots are pocketed so that no binding is needed to cover the bare fret ends.

Having never looked at banjos before, the neck offered two related challenges. First was the intrinsic asymmetry: What angle defines the neck-pot join? Second was: How do we make that curved and angled interface? We have tried to answer those questions here.